A study coordinated by Domenico Mattoscio and Antonio Recchiuti from the Molecular Medicine lab was recently published in “International Journal of Molecular Sciences”.

Pre-clinical evidence from the same group recently demonstrated that the stimulation of resolution of inflammation is beneficial to counteract tumor growth. However, if and how resolution pathways are defective in cancer and how their defects influence tumorigenesis is still poorly understood. To address this issue, the authors here defined and employed a cumulative score, the resolvin D (RvD) score, to quantify levels of resolution based on the expression levels of genes involved in the synthesis, signaling, and metabolism of RvD. This score was used as an estimator of pathway activity in comparative analyses, to evaluate the clinical and molecular features of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) within bulk RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) datasets retrieved in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

The obtained results evidenced that higher RvD scores are associated with better clinical outcome of HNSC patients, and with molecular and cellular signatures indicative of enhanced anti-tumor immunity and better response to immunotherapies. Thus, higher activity of the RvD pathway identifies patients with improved resolution and a more efficient immune reaction against cancer. Therefore, restoration of resolution in cancer is crucial to improve response to therapies and clinical outcomes in HNSC patients.

Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23126473

Title: Gene Expression of the D-Series Resolvin Pathway Predicts Activation of Anti-Tumor Immunity and Clinical Outcomes in Head and Neck Cancer

Authors: Domenico Mattoscio, Giulia Ferri, Claudia Miccolo, Susanna Chiocca, Mario Romano, Antonio Recchiuti.

Contacts: Domenico Mattoscio – ph.: 0871.541417  email: d.mattoscio@unich.it